Smart, Busy Women Finally Get Their Own Dating App

"I designed it for career-oriented, busy, professional women," Amanda Bradford says as she looks down at a device in her palm. But instead of an alarm clock that rattles off to-do list items or a hybrid baby monitor/conference call speaker, the 29-year-old's clutching her iPhone and swiping through a prototype of The League, her dating app that launches today. By prioritizing users' privacy while delivering a curated matchmaking service, the app certainly caters to high-octane, ambitious women. But then again, it benefits all women, not just the no-bullshit Olivia Popes and multitasking Gwyneth Paltrows of the world. It's great—really great—in spite of what some people might have you think.

In August, the press pounced on The League while it was in development, labeling it "Tinder for elitists," (HuffPo) and painting its target customer as "a narcissist with an over-inflated evaluation of their own worth" (The Daily Dot). Aptly named to imply a superior caste of digital daters, The League relies on a screening algorithm that promises to keep its community "well-balanced and high-quality," so perhaps the negative press was somewhat understandable. But beneath The League's veneer of exclusivity, there's a clever, problem-solving interface that seals it: The app's strength is its function, not its flash. It's easy, too easy, to count the reasons why any woman who wants to "date intelligently," as their tagline goes, would love the app, which—while it rolls out today in San Francisco only—will spring up in major U.S. cities, one-by-one, shortly. Here, why you should have it on your radar:

#1: The privacy thing.

Bradford, a former Google employee who holds an MBA from Stanford, snagged on something when she suddenly became single in grad school: She wanted to join Tinder and OkCupid, but she didn't want everyone (her professors, her potential future employers, her ex boyfriend's friends) seeing her personal information and that she was "on the prowl." But how could she put herself out there without overexposing herself in the process? This dilemma sparked one of the key differentiators of The League: By requiring both LinkedIn and Facebook for signup, The League can keep people's profiles from popping up in front of those in their professional and social networks, if they want:

Brilliant, right? Of course, while requiring both Facebook and LinkedIn could be a barrier (many creative types don't have LinkedIn; many people have jumped ship from Facebook), it seems to be more of a hurdle than a total roadblock, with people actually signing up for LindkedIn or reactivating their Facebook accounts so they can get on the list for The League. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of people who want to date without ditching their discretionary concerns.

Plus, for those who want added privacy, Bradford developed a premium service, the League's "Heavy Hitters," which ensures ultimate control. As a Heavy Hitter paying $15 a month (standard use of The League is free), no one can see your profile unless you want them to.

#2: The curation thing.

Unlike most dating apps, you can't just join The League and immediately start pawing through the platform—which is, of course, what the press lunged at earlier this fall. There's a waiting list, which Bradford explains is integral to the customer experience, since she wants to ensure each person who joins the dating pool has suitable and varied matches in return. Behind the scenes, The League works not unlike a private matchmaker—curated, careful, thoughtful—but with the ease and Gen Y-ness of an app, it attracts young 20 and 30-somethings, not 50 year old "entrepreneurs" looking for their fourth wives.

#3: The no creepers thing.

On other apps and sites, while you can designate, say, that you are a 24-year-old woman who only wants to date men 25-34 years old, it doesn't matter: Your profile will still be visible to those 68-year-old men trolling for 24-year-old women, even though you've already said you are not interested in that. Not on The League. While they're careful to only show you matches that make sense for you, they'll also only show your profile to people you would potentially be interested in, too. Makes sense, right?

#4: The punishment thing.

Okay, I know…"Punishment?" But this is smart development, trust me. Think about it: There are single people who are only on Hinge to look at the pictures, not to do anything, and married people messaging away on Tinder just for the thrill of flirting. Bradford doesn't want those game-players and ghost-like profiles cluttering her app, so she says that if users "aren't logging in, not responding to users, or people are messaging them and they're not messaging back, little things like that," they'll take action.

With that in mind, Bradford developed "a flagging system so that if the user is just there to check it out and not participate, we put them back on the wait list." Because a dating app should only be for people who really, actually want to date, right? And yet no one has cared to enforce such a practical policy on the digital dating world—until Bradford.

With these nuanced yet necessary tweaks to the traditional dating app model, The League cuts through so much of the riffraff that makes dating apps good in theory but not always great in practice. So while the media was quick to dismiss Bradford in August—"Do you really need a Stanford MBA to launch a dating app?" read a Fortune headline, trivializing Bradford as if she were a blonde 20-something who gave more brain space to boys than to her degree from one of the best business schools in the country—her innovations speak for themselves. Bradford is smart, and The League is a strong product. While it won't solve any major world problems, of course, it could certainly make a whole bunch of peoples' lives easier, in a small but noticeable way. What more could we ask for?

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